Axolotl aggression?

[Giuseppe]

I have 3 axolotl in a 55 gallon tank, two siblings a leucistic and a wild type and an unrelated golden albino. They're all about 6 inches long. Within the past week the wild type has been chasing and nipping at the golden. I thought I might not have been feeding enough so I started feeding twice a day. They eat about 4 red wigglers every day and get frozen bloodworms, freeze dried tubifex and shrimp pellets as occasional treats. I thought that fixed the problem but today the wild type attacked the golden, seriously injuring his front foot. I have the wild type separated from the rest now but I'm wondering if there's any reason besides hunger that this could be happening? Or am I still not feeding enough? It was my understanding that axolotl aren't territorial or aggressive. Could it be a problem with my husbandry? I would like the. all to be together someday but would only do it once golden has fully healed and I have a solution to the problem

 

[Tye]

Rumor has it that juvenile wild types can be more aggressive towards other color morphs, especially lighter ones. They tend to settle down when mature. My wild type is with a melanistic and they get on ok.
I'm not sure the validity of the idea that wilds are more aggressive, I've just read it from several other keepers.
It's good that you separated out the problem one, perhaps when they're all adults you could try reintroducing?

 

[xxianxx]

Aggression in juvies is generally food based or due to size difference. In their first year of life they are trying to put size on, they are generally hungry and some will deliberately target tank mates as a food source. As adults this tendency diminishes but occasionally axolotls don't outgrow this phase and are just antisocial with similar sized tank mates. They need to be isolated or I have had success in keeping them with much larger tank mates, this knocks the aggression out of them.
With juvies you can reduce aggressive episodes by feeding more regularly, increasing tank size and increasing the number of hides. If these methods don't work isolation is fine till adult, then you can try reintroducing them.

 

[Puddlenewts]

I had this happen with my 7 month old wild type. He randomly decided to attack his albino tank mate even though they had been fine together since they were about an inch. I finally had to separate them because nothing else worked unfortunately.

 

[rhotle]

From what I've read, it seems fairly common for juveniles to be somewhat territorial over food. If it gets bad you could always setup a new tank or maybe re-home one! I re-homed my wild type and so far it has worked out great, plus I still see her every now and then. She went to a veteran axie owner